A. R. Ammons
A. R. Ammons
Archie Randolph Ammonswas an American poet who won the annual National Book Award for Poetry in 1973 and 1993...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth18 February 1926
CountryUnited States of America
wonderful
Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful.
blessed destruction
What destruction have I been blessed by?
want way
One can't have it both ways and both ways is the only way I want it.
self return plenitude
Poetry leads us to the unstructured sources of our beings, to the unknown, and returns us to our rational, structured selves refreshed.
mortals saved locals
To be saved is here, local and mortal
answers disorder what-is-poetry
If we ask a vague question, such as, 'What is poetry?' we expect a vague answer, such as, 'Poetry is the music of words,' or 'Poetry is the linguistic correction of disorder.'
vision definitions way
Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when they blank out other ways of seeing.
analogies firsts walks
I take the walk to be the externalization of an interior seeking so that the analogy is first of all between the external and the internal.
grateful mean textbooks
I am grateful for - though I can't keep up with - the flood of articles, theses, and textbooks that mean to share insight concerning the nature of poetry.
mushrooms answers
Attend to mushrooms and all other things will answer up.
half world wonderful
The wonderful workings of the world: wonderful, wonderful: I'm surprised half the time
numbers shapes patterns
With the first step, the number of shapes the walk might take is infinite, but then the walk begins to define itself as it goes along, though freedom remains total with each step: any tempting side road can be turned into an impulse, or any wild patch of woods can be explored. The pattern of the walk is to come true, is to be recognized, discovered.
circles white sun
The white sun like a moth on a string circles the southpole.
years imagine hundred
Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can't imagine ourselves living without